Ginette Hillman’s artistic practice spans painting, photography and performance art. Her work arises out of an exploration of states of transcendence where form and chaos, embodiment and dissolution, death and resurrection, find passionate expression.
The notion of the artwork as a place of healing underpins her practice. The artefact has an almost shamanic function of opening the viewer to his or her own possibility of transformation. The sheer energy of the work confronts any form of stagnation. Hillman says she is interested in ‘mastering the human journey’ and her works are attempts to unmask authenticity itself.
Hillman’s work wrestles with the fundamental polarity of body and spirit and her large canvases can be viewed as sites of an existential and sacred battle. The colour surfaces accrue a palpable charge and the final brushstrokes appear at times as valedictory scripts, at other times as lyrical way stations on a journey of metamorphosis.
Hillman was the 2015 winner of the Kalgoorlie Boulder Art Prize Award for Excellence in 2D painting for the painting ‘Polarities’, a serious indicator of success for an emerging artist.
Recognising Ginette Hillman’s formidable talent, Ian de Souza initiated a long-term mentorship and the two artists painted side by side during 2016 with de Souza encouraging forays into brilliant colour. Hillman attributes the shift from a largely monochromatic palette to the bold ease she has developed with colour to this time with the prolific Fremantle artist.
In July & August of 2017 Ginette Hillman will stage her first solo exhibition at The Glass Studio at Replants in Fremantle. Titled ‘From Scared to Sacred’, the exhibition will be open to the public on Saturday 29th July,  following this will be available for private viewing for the month of August, by appointment only.
Written by Jennifer Kornberger

I left St Kilda in 1993 and moved to Dunsborough where I began my artistic journey.  I now live in Perth and have a studio at P.S.A.S. 22 Pakenham Street, Fremantle. I graduated in 1997 from Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, as a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Painting Major, Printmaking Minor).  In 2013, I was selected as a semi-finalist for the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for my portrait of Marianne MacKay, Aboriginal Activist.  In 2015 I graduated from Ikon Institute as Art Therapist with Advanced Diploma of Transpersonal Art Therapy.
I have held several individual exhibitions and also been included in numerous group exhibitions.  My latest exhibition, ‘Zero’ was at PS Art Space, Fremantle, December 2016.
My practice as an artist is centred on painting and drawing. The influence on my art process is ‘Automatic Drawing’.  Automatic drawing is a process where you draw with no plan or conscious control.  This allows the subconscious to express itself through mark marking.  This technique gives me the perfect opportunity to free myself from traditional ways of working, to take a fresh approach and develop my own unique style.
I found this style a liberating and wonderful way to produce rich, satisfying abstract artworks.  This process was first used by the early modernist artists, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.